Magical Offense and Defense

"To be precise, it's a 'Repulsion Magic Array'," Gagnor said. He was undoubtedly the most knowledgeable about magic among them, although most of the magic he knew wasn't exactly orthodox.

"Repulsion Magic Array?" Several rookie mercenaries were clearly clueless, their faces full of question marks.

Gagnor explained, "The Repulsion Array is the most common type of defensive magic array. It uses the city walls and nodes as its infrastructure, and it's maintained by mages and high-level individuals. If the Repulsion Magic Array is functioning properly, no enemy can enter."

One of the mercenaries thought for a moment. "So the enemy will try to destroy the Repulsion Magic Array first?"

"Exactly." Gagnor nodded. "They'll first establish an 'Intervention Magic Array'. Like the Repulsion Array, the Intervention Array is also maintained by mages and high-level individuals."

"The Intervention Array weakens the effect of the Repulsion Array. The weakened Repulsion Array won't be able to block all enemies, but only a portion of them," he continued. "Undoubtedly, the highest-level attackers will be blocked first, while lower-level attackers can pass through the Repulsion Array and engage the defending forces below the city."

"If the attackers can break through the defending forces, they can approach and destroy the city walls. The city walls are a magical component of the Repulsion Array. If the city walls are damaged, the Repulsion Array will be further weakened, creating a larger 'net leak', allowing even higher-level attackers to pass through." He pointed to the defending forces below the city.

"The Repulsion Array sounds a bit like the Tidal Lands…" someone commented.

Gagnor said, "That's right. The person who created the Repulsion Array, an ancient Blood Elf mage, was said to have been inspired by the Tidal Lands."

"So, the outcome of the battle is mainly determined by the high-level individuals?"

Gagnor pondered. "More or less. Only when the strength of the high-level individuals on both sides is relatively equal is there a need for war to even take place."

"If Yuris has a lot of high-level individuals, are we doomed to lose?" someone worried.

Gagnor shook his head. "Yuris shouldn't have too many high-level individuals on his side. Of course, neither do we."

"Why?"

Gagnor didn't answer the question.

According to the information he had, this battle of Presto seemed to involve internal strife within Mosaism, or rather, it was a microcosm of the church's internal struggles.

Since it was internal strife, there would definitely be many checks and balances or tacit agreements. It shouldn't come to a situation where the strong bully the weak.

Of course, he was just a small fry after all. These were all his speculations based on unofficial information, and they might not be accurate. He couldn't just go around spouting them.

Three days passed in a flash.

Viscount Uris's army arrived as scheduled, besieging the city.

Gagnor stood on the city wall and looked into the distance, estimating that the enemy had more than five thousand soldiers, significantly more than the garrison of Presto Fortress.

However, most of these five thousand were cannon fodder, which could be seen from their attire and weapons – Gagnor even saw some "soldiers" carrying farm tools.

Cannon fodder was cannon fodder.

Considering the Repulsion Magic Array's defensive effect, at least in the early stages of the war, the main participants would be mid-to-low-end combatants. High-end combatants wouldn't be involved.

Gagnor noticed that Viscount Uris's army had begun to set up the Intervention Magic Array.

Several carriages, guarded by the army, arrived at several locations outside Presto Fortress, and then huge, transparent crystals were unloaded from the carriages.

Nexus Crystals.

Almost all magic arrays, including the Intervention Array and the Repulsion Array, required these crystals. Therefore, in the world of Falaro, Nexus Crystals were an important strategic resource. The larger the crystal, the more important it was. Ordinary people rarely had the opportunity to see them in their lives.

These huge Nexus Crystals were almost completely embedded in metal bases. The metal bases were covered in mysterious patterns and tapered to a point at the bottom, allowing them to be inserted into the ground.

Once the metal bases were inserted into the ground and secured, the magic nodes of the Intervention Array were considered established.

Then, the mages began to cast their spells. These magic nodes gradually lit up with colorful lights similar to those of the Repulsion Array, but they looked much weaker.

The situation quickly changed.

The high-level individuals on Yuris's side approached the magic nodes one after another. With the help of the mages, they established a connection with the nodes through magical arcs that resembled floating silk threads, becoming the "node connectors" of the Intervention Array.

As the connections were established, the light of the magic nodes rapidly intensified and extended to both sides, connecting with other nodes, and the Intervention Magic Array was thus formed.

After a period of rhythmic flashing, several dazzling pillars of light shot out from the nodes of the completed Intervention Array, heading towards the Repulsion Magic Array that enveloped Presto Fortress.

"Rumble—" The Intervention Array and the Repulsion Array made contact, immediately erupting in a rumbling sound, as if thunder was surging.

At the same time, the points where the Intervention Array's light and the Repulsion Array's light screen made contact lit up with brilliant light, even more dazzling than the sun in the sky.

In this grand magical confrontation, the Repulsion Array's light screen continuously retreated, getting closer and closer to the city walls.

Originally, the Repulsion Array's light screen was hundreds of meters away from the city walls, but in less than half a minute, the distance was compressed to less than a hundred meters.

Some of the rookie defenders on the city walls showed signs of panic at the sight of this scene.

"Is the Repulsion Magic Array going to be broken?"

Hearing the discussions around him, Gagnor said, "This is just the beginning. The Intervention Array and the Repulsion Array usually engage in at least a day of intense confrontation before a relatively stable balance is formed."

Sure enough, just as he was speaking, the Repulsion Array's light screen, which had been retreating steadily, suddenly reversed its decline and began to push back the Intervention Array's pillars of light.

Gagnor could vaguely see that when the Repulsion Array began to push back, the node connectors of the Intervention Array looked strained, as if they were playing tug-of-war. He estimated that the node connectors on their side were the same.

The Repulsion Array and the Intervention Array engaged in a back-and-forth magical offensive and defensive battle, advancing and retreating at least a hundred times over the next two days, before gradually reaching a stable equilibrium.

At this point, the Repulsion Array's light screen was about a hundred meters away from the city walls.

When the magical offensive and defensive battle reached a stable balance, a mage came to Viscount Uris.

"Lord Uris, the results of the magic array confrontation are out," the mage said respectfully to the lord in front of him. He was young.

Viscount Uris was a tall and handsome blond man, around thirty years old, wearing plate armor, a long sword hanging at his waist, and sporting a neat handlebar mustache.

"What are the results?" He looked at the Repulsion light screen in the distance, his brow furrowed slightly, clearly not completely unaware of the results.

"The initial rejection range of Presto Fortress's Repulsion Magic Array was Level 1 to Level 8," the mage said. "Thanks to our efforts, the rejection range has been compressed to Level 5 to Level 8. Now we can start the siege with soldiers below Level 5."